1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular interface between a vehicle driver or passenger and vehicle equipment, and in particular, to a vehicular interface allowing a dialogue therebetween.
2. Description of Relevant Art
Recent vehicles have various electric or electronic auxiliary equipment including, for example, a navigation system, an air conditioner, an audio or video system, and electrical appliances. They are provided with controls and elements for their operations, which are collected to a single operational module or equipment that serves as an interface between a vehicle driver or passenger and vehicle-mounted equipment.
Japanese Patent Application Laying-Open Publication No. 2001-294101 (hereafter referred to “Ref-1”) has disclosed a vehicular interface of a dialogue concept including a display for visualized presentation of an operation menu, and a “centralized (i.e. single-localized and operation-commonized) combination of manually operable switching elements or controls” (hereafter called “centralized commander”) as a common member having a central switch region for decision, and a peripheral switch region for directional inching scans in the operation menu.